Shades of Gray
by Hyper-Piper
Summary: This a story of an unfilled prophecy, an avengeful minister, three teenage witches and the greatest adventure any of them have ever dreamed of embarking on. RR, rated PG-13 for language and romance later on.


Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling.  
  
Authors Note: 'Lo, everyone. This is Hyper-Piper coming to you live from America. Well, sort of. Like the summary said, this story is extreme. It is thought out and complex. Brace yourself.  
  
I'm young and I'm hopeless I'm lost and I know this I'm going nowhere fast that's what they say. I'm troublesome I've fallen I'm angry at my father It's me against this world and I don't care I don't care. - Good Charlotte, the Young and the Hopeless  
  
Chapter 1: The Beginning  
  
So, let me ask you this question. What happens when you take the three most powerful witches in the world and put them in run-of-the-mill teenage bodies? You're about to find out.  
  
It all started at the very beginning of time: that is, just before the birth of our well-known Jesus Christ. An ongoing battle was raged between the Resistance and the Force. The Resistance consisted of three witches with powers of the body, mind and spirit. The Force was not a physical form. it was more an essence that wanted to keep everything going exactly how it was and did not like the idea of people knowing the truth about the world before them. The witches were Kyrie, Kirin and Kiara. Kyrie was the body of the group and her powers were the ability to heal and explosion. Kirin was the mind and her powers were premonitions and telekenisis. Finally, Kiara was the spirit. Her powers were flight and mind-reading. After these witches died in battle (mortal as they were) they decided to pass on their legacy to hand-chosen beings born exactly 2,000 years from the day of their death-January 1st, 0 A.D , on the Christian calendar. In retaliation, the Force chose a babe to take his place. It promised this little babe would grow up to guarantee chief control over the truth and what the people heard. The prophecy was that the three little teenage- witches would bring the downfall of the center domineering source of evil at that time and let the truth the Force's little one hid out. These opposing sources were no more the forces of good versus evil than a dog fighting a cat would be. Know that this story does not involve black and white. It involves the Shades of Gray.  
  
Hence, with the prophecy of these three witches and society's evil's, our story starts.  
  
Secret Ministry of Magic Office; 12:00 AM January 1st, 1972.  
  
Dr. Nero Terrian woke up suddenly when he heard a loud and rather persistent knocking at his office door. Groggily, he sat up and wondered why someone would disturb him at such an un-godly hour.  
"Come in," said Dr. Terrian as he shook himself out of his R.E.M cycle and roughly rubbed his 5:00 shadow. One of his employees opened the door and approached his desk. "Oh, Smith. What is it that you want now?" He asked, blearing through the darkness of the room.  
"They've been born, sir."  
Dr. Terrian sat up abruptly suddenly as awake as if he'd just drunk a gallon of caffeine.  
"That's excellent. What do we know?"  
"Only that all three of them were born at exactly midnight on January 1st." Smith paused for a moment teetering on the decision of being reprimanded by his boss and doing further investigation. He chose the latter. "What does the prophecy say, exactly, sir? I mean I know these children are powerful but do you really believe they'll be able to overthrow us: The Ministry of Magic? The control center of the entire magical world?"  
"Of course I believe it. What's not to believe? Every empire has its end-what goes up must come down. We just have to learn to fly to stay above."  
"But then how do we go about it, sir?" Dr. Terrian paused, obviously deciding how he would verbalize his thoughts.  
"I've thought about this long and hard and I know there's only one thing we can do, Smith. Find them. Find them and kill them." Smith made a small whimper, almost in pity. "We have no choice! Have I not explained this? Do you want to end up on the streets with your family, dying of starvation? If they succeed then the world as we know it will end. The Ministry will no longer hold the same power. They are the Resistance. You do not realize what could happen if they live. We must kill them. now, while their vulnerable."  
"But sir, we don't know anything about them. We only know when they were born. We do not the place, not to whom. we don't even know what gender they are!"  
"Watch your tone, Smith. I outrank you." He paused and let his temper ebb away. "Besides, we know more than you think," continued Dr. Terrian, his eyes glazing over with the thought of his master plan. "We know they were born to three different families and that each is family descendent from a powerful witch. We know where they will be and what they will do exactly 18 years from now. We also know the prophecy. We can begin with the future. Come on now, Smith. get some sleep in your dormitory-we have a long day ahead of us."  
  
11 years, 5 months and three days later.  
  
"JO! JO! JO!"  
Joanna Owen Foreman awoke groggily as her oldest sister, Jordan, burst open her door and shook her awake vigorously.  
"Jo, your Hogwarts letter came today! Come on, open it." Not a moment later, Jo's older two sisters were crowding around her bed, urging her to open it. If anyone knew Jo, they knew she wasn't a morning person. She glared at both of them, glanced at her Hogwarts letter, and turned over and went back to sleep. Her sisters stood over her, shocked.  
"Someone's in a cheery mood," Jordan muttered under her breath as she pulled Josie, the sister closest in age to Jo, out of Jo's bedroom.  
"Hey now, be nice. She's just."  
"Pissed off?"  
"NO. I was going to say overwhelmed. Besides, its not surprising she is a little irritated. You had to go and wake her up so rudely."  
"Hey, I thought she would be excited, little miss I-Know-And-Care-About- Everyone."  
"I do not!" Josie protested.  
"Ok. Sure!" Jordan finished. Josie stuck her nose up, deciding she'd won the miniature battle-of-the-wits.  
  
When Jo woke up again a couple of hours later, both of her sisters appeared to have gone to work. She was quite all right with that. She had short, straight hair, and the first of all her sisters to be born a blonde. She stood about 5 feet at 11 years old, which wasn't too bad, but a couple more inches wouldn't kill her, in her opinion. Jo was an old head on young shoulders; it was almost as if she was forced to grow up too fast. As far as she was concerned, most kids her age were too immature and she preferred to hang out with people at least 3 years older than herself, anyway. She looked down on the counter to see a note scrawled by Josie.  
  
Jo,  
  
Are you okay? Sorry we had to go to work, but, as you know, no pain no gain. Maybe we can shop for your Hogwarts stuff this weekend. Feel free to walk to Brian's house. We'll be back by 5.  
  
Love, Josie  
  
Jo sighed. Typical. Now, don't get me wrong. Jo could be optimistic and humorous. That piece of her was still inside, just lost with the hustle and bustle. What she really needed was a best friend. Sure, Brian was nice. They'd lived two houses apart for the past 7 years and he was great to hang out with, but Jo felt she'd lost connection with him. She'd lost connection with everything when her parents died on that fateful day, January 1st, exactly 4 years before.  
  
50 miles away.  
  
Caro slowly rose from her slumber and glanced at the alarm clock. 8:00-not bad for a Saturday. She trudged downstairs to make breakfast, not bothering to be quiet. She didn't really care if she woke up any of her brothers. Caro was a skinny 11-year-old pureblood and probably about 5"4. She had styled brown hair that reached a little before her shoulders and startling blue eyes. She was wearing one of her oldest brother Corey's old T-shirts and pajama pants with snitches on them.  
She smiled her trademark smile. "I almost forgot about Caleb's surprise this morning," she muttered to herself as she reached for a cereal bowl. A few minutes later, the older male version of herself, her brother Caleb, ran into the kitchen wearing only a towel.  
"You! You, you, you!" It seemed to be the only thing he could say. Something new. "Stop it! It's not funny! WHY did I teach you how to tap the shower system. why?"  
When Caro had finally contained herself, she spoke. "Caleb, you know I only did it to repay you for putting shaving cream in my birthday cake." At this moment, their eldest brother, Corey, came downstairs. Corey was 26 and had a wife, Deborah, who lived with them and their family. She was Caro's stand-in mother; her real parents were so old and lived across the country by themselves.  
"Corey! Look at the injustice here! She put orange juice in my shower! Make her PAY!"  
"Caleb, you did spike her cake."  
"But I'm OLDER! I'm allowed to get away with spiking her cake!"  
"Just wash it out in mine and Deborah's shower."  
"OK, ew! What if she walks in!? That's your wife!"  
"What about her being my wife? What are you trying to say!?" Caro began to pour her cereal absentmindedly, ignoring her brothers, when an owl flew in the kitchen window. Caro reached for the letter tied to its leg. could it be? Was this the day her Hogwarts letter came? With shaking hands, she opened the letter.  
"YES!! Aha! I'm in, I'm in, I'm in!" She began celebrating with her happy dance, something that frightened most adults. "Corey! My letter! I'm in!" Caro said, unable to put together a coherent sentence.  
"Really, Beano?" He had called her that since the day she was born. in a bean shape. "That's great! I'll take you to get your stuff when I'm ready." Caro nodded and sat back down, still in a daze about Hogwarts. She was finally going.  
  
Meanwhile, across London.  
  
CRASH!  
  
"BLADE MAY JOHANSEN! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN YOUR ROOM!" Blade woke up, startled, to find broken glass on her floor. She shook her head vigorously to wake herself up and looked down at her feet. An owl. There was an owl sitting on her bed.  
"HOLY SHIT!" She screamed. At that moment, her father burst into her room.  
"Shoo, owl! Get out!" He aimed a kick, but missed. The owl was flying around her center lamp when Blade's dad reached over to turn on her ceiling fan.  
"Daddy, no!" He ran to the switch when Blade noticed there was what appeared to be a letter tied to its foot. "Stop! Look, it has a letter!" Her dad slowly backed away from the switch and peered above.  
"Mary, mother of God." He stood at the foot of her bed and stuck out his arm, signaling for the owl to hop on it. The owl gave him a 'like I would put my nice talons on your arm' look and flew down to Blade's bedside table, knocking over her lamp with a start. Blade slowly untied the letter.  
"Jesus, there are other ways to send letters. Is this some guys' idea of romantic?" He inhaled sharply, given an idea. He tersely stuck his head out the window and peered into the night, searching for a young male, obviously intending to rape his daughter.  
"Dad, there's no guy and its not like he would intend to rape me." Hmmm. Coincidence? Blade pulled her dad away from the window.  
"Well, that was strange," her father sighed. "I'll have to report that. And fix your lamp too. Oh, and by the way, I don't want to hear any more swearing out of your mouth. Swearing goes up, football practice goes down. Got it?"  
"Yeah, I know." Got to love dads.  
He calmed down a bit and smiled at his 11-year-old daughter. "Goodnight, sweetheart." He kissed her on the forehead and pulled her covers up to her chin.  
"Night, dad." Her father left her room and she slowly pulled out the letter and turned on her bedside lamp, realized it was broken and turned on her main light. The letter was addressed:  
  
Miss Blade Johansen 2nd floor bedroom 42 Briar Cliffe Way London, England  
  
2nd floor bedroom? Hmm. With shaking hands, she pried open the letter.  
  
Miss Johansen,  
  
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  
  
"Hogwarts?"  
  
2 months later  
  
After Blade read aloud the parchment explaining what Hogwarts and witches were to her parents and convinced them that Hogwarts was a great chance for her, they let her go. So, our three main characters saw each other for the first time two months later on their ride to Hogwarts. Blade arrived at King's Cross Station about half an hour before they were to leave (11:00).  
"I'm so sorry we have to leave early, but of course you can find your way." Blade's mom said apologetically. She was tall and lovely, though she had not yet found a balance between work and family, just like her husband. "Have a lovely semester, dear. We'll see you at Christmas." She gave her a passionate hug and a peck on the cheek before swiftly departing. As our readers can probably figure out, Blade's dad did not see her off.  
"Alright, I've got half an hour before the train leaves and no parents. YES!" Blade whirled around quickly, high-strung with her newfound freedom and ran face-to-face with a station guard.  
"Can I help you?" It was more of a statement than a question. He was tall and imposing with tweed, dark eyes and a deep almost baritone voice. "Where are your parents? Answer me."  
"Erm. my parents already left. They dropped me off here." Please someone help-how do I explain to this guy about Hogwarts?  
"That's not regulation. Let me see your Boarding Pass." Before Blade had a chance to make up some bullshit lie, a small figure came careening towards her.  
"There you are, sis! Mom and Dad and I were looking for you!" She winked. She seemed nice enough with short-cropped blonde hair and a friendly smile.  
"Thank you so much, sir. We might have missed our train to Surrey if we had not found her. You see, our train leaves in five minutes. Thanks again!" Before the guard could say anything more the blonde girl (as our intelligent readers have most likely figured out to be Jo) pulled Blade aside.  
"Thanks. How did you know I went to Hogwarts?" Blade asked.  
"Hush about it, will you? This place is swarming with Muggles? Why in the hell did you wear your robes?" Blade looked down. Oh, yeah. She hadn't even considered the fact that people who couldn't find out about Hogwarts were probably here too. And what was a Muggle? This girl didn't seem so friendly anymore. "Just come with me."  
She grabbed the front of Blade's cart and pulled her forward. She ran so fast and Blade had no idea why. The train didn't leave until 11:00 and it was currently only 10:40. The two witches and the cart were rushing all around the station until the came to the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Before Blade even had time to scream, she was shoved forward into the wall. Blade tensed, waiting for the crash, but it didn't come. Shaking, she opened her eyes. What she saw next was the most marvelous engine she had ever seen, which wasn't a huge thing because she had never been on a train. It was a scarlet engine with steam rising loftily from the front pipe. Blade saw the steam as clouds of opportunity coming out of transportation to a new life. Inside, she raged with excitement. She turned to the blonde girl.  
"Thanks. I would have been totally lost."  
"Don't mention it." She turned away. Not a talker, Blade thought.  
"My name is Blade Johansen. What's yours?"  
"Joanna Foreman, but you can call me Joan, Jo or J.O." Jo (or Joan or J.O) was pleased to find someone interested enough, or at least someone who wanted to be her friend.  
"Respond to anything, do you?"  
"Uh. sure. Lets find a compartment before all the good ones are taken."  
  
Meanwhile.  
  
"Bye, Caro! Don't worry, you'll have a great semester." Deborah gave Caro a hug out of the compartment window, seeming to know exactly what was going through her head, as usual.  
"Yeah, Beano. Your brothers will take care of you." Corey spoke encouragingly.  
"Erm.We can go with that," said Diego, Caro's third oldest brother with a grin to his 3 fellow brothers. Corey caught a glance of his twin brothers, Jacob and Jesse, (who were going into 4th year) giving each other a high-five.  
"Come on, now-especially you, Diego. You've been here for five years before and you're a prefect. Set an example for your sister.  
"Brothers weren't made to set an example. Quite the contrary." Caleb offered, punching his sister. Corey sighed. The train whistle blew.  
"Goodbye, everyone!" Corey and Deborah shouted as the train rumbled by. Caro's brother's turned on her, menacing.  
"Okay, in this compartment you have to be in 2nd year or higher."  
"Come on, guys! I'm one of you! That's not fair!" Caro protested  
"Why don't you go complain about it to your friends? Oh wait. you don't have any. Well, what is school for? Go find some!" Jesse shoved Caro out of the compartment as the opposite wall broke her fall. Caro shook her head and looked up to find a closed door and Caleb's menacing face jeering at her through the window. She began banging on the door. Nothing. With a sigh of defeat, she sat down opposite the door, searching for a plot idea in her head.  
"Um. excuse me." Caro looked up from her muttering to find herself face- to-face with a blonde and a redhead, obviously trying to get past. The blonde was the one who spoke. Why is the redhead wearing her school robes?  
"Are you in 1st year?"  
"Um.yeah. You too?"  
"We are. You know, you could always get a compartment with us instead of banging the door down," the redhead added with a laugh.  
Caro laughed as well. "Okay."  
  
So, there we have it. The wheels of the future are in motion. Searches for the three witches are being performed. The prophecy has begun. 


End file.
